Brake for railway-cars.



G. G. THOMPSON. BRAKE FOR RAILWAY CABS. APILIOATION FILED mm; 11, 1909.

963,961 Patented July 12,1910.

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UNE l- STATES MEN ion.

GEORGE C. THOMPSON, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALETO FREDERICK C. ECKERT AND ONE-HALF T0 HENRY HEILEMANN, BOTH OF PHILA-DELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

BRAKE FOB. RAILWAY-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed June 11, 1909.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE C. THOMPSON, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Brakes for Railway-Cars, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in brakes, and particularly tothat class of brakes used upon trolley cars or other railway cars of anydescription; and the main objects of this invention are to provide acheap and simple brake that may be readily applied to any railway car;to provide a brake that may be easily operated, and that will beeffective to stop a car under any conditions; and to provide otherimprovements as will appear hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a brakeconstructed in accordance with this invention and applied to a car; Fig.2 is a top plan view of the same partially in horizontal section on line2-2 of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, one embodiment of this invention is shownapplied to a car of the usual design, having a floor or frame 1supported in any well known manner upon an axle2having rotatably mountedat each end thereof, a flanged wheel 3 raised upon the usual rail 4,carried upon the usual road bed 5.

The form of the device illustrated comprises a vertical crank shaft 6,rotatably mounted in the floor or frame of the car and rotatablysupported adjacent its lower end in a bearing 7, supported beneath theframe 1 by the braces 8. The crank shaft (3 is provided at its upper endwith a substantially horizontal crank arm 9, the outer end of which isturned upwardly to form a handle 10 for actuating the brake. The lowerend of the crank shaft projects downwardly through the bearing 7 and isprovided at its lower end with a circular wrist plate 11 rigidtherewith.

The wrist plate 11 is provided with dia metrically opposite apertures 12adjacent the periphery thereof, in each of which rotatably engages thedownturned end 13 of a substantially horizontal outwardly extendingconnecting rod 13, the downturned end projecting through the wrist plateand being upset or headed to hold it in position.

The outer end of each connecting rod is connected by means of a pin orrivet 14 between the ends of a yoke or sleeve 15 surrounding the axle 2upon the inside of and in contact with one of the wheels 3, the sleeve15 being movable longitudinally of the axle.

The wheels 3 are mounted upon the axle so as to have a slight amount ofend play or movement longitudinally of the axle, so that when theactuating handle 10 is given a partial turn clockwise, or in a suitabledirection according to the construction of the brake, the wrist plate 11will be rotated in the same direction to force the sleeve 15 outwardlyagainst the inner surfaces of the wheels 3, forcing the Wheels outwardlyand causing the sides of the rims 16 to grip or bind against the innersurfaces of the rails,

thus impeding the progress of the car and when suflicient pressure isapplied to the handle 10, the car will be brought to a full stop. Aratchet wheel 17 is rigidly secured around the crank shaft 6 adjacentthe upper surface of the floor 1 of the car and is adapted to be engagedby a dog or pawl 18 pivoted to the floor to hold the brake locked.

This brake is very effective and will operate to stop a car even whenthe tracks are wet and slippery or covered with snow or ice, thusobviating the need of using sand upon the tracks, and avoiding theexpense and delay incident thereto. Furthermore, as this brake acts uponthe sides of the rims of the wheels and tends to bind the wheels betweenthe tracks, the wheels cannot be worn excessively in any place upontheir cylindrical surfaces, and thus the wheels of a car equipped withthis brake cannot become flat as is the frequent result when theordinary style of brake is used. This brake may also be used in startinga car upon a slippery track as by partially applying the brakes, thewheels are caused to grip the track sufficiently to start the car.

With this construction in mind, it is evident that the brake is simpleand cheap to construct, and may be applied to any car; and that it savestime and expense in the operation of a car and reduces the liability toaccidents as the car may always be kept under control.

Although one form of this invention only has been illustrated, it isobvious that many changes might be made in the construction shownwithout departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of theappended claims.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim and desire to protectby Letters Patent of the United States;

1. The combination with a railway car provided with separable wheels, ofmeans arranged to move one of said wheels laterally to cause a sideportion of said wheel to engage against the side of a rail to act as abrake on said car.

2. The combination with a railway car provided with separable flangedwheels, of means to move one of said wheels laterally to cause theflange on said wheel to engage against a supporting rail to brake saidcar.

3. The combination with a railway car, of a wheel carried by said carand arranged to engage a rail, of means to move said wheellongitudinally of its axis to act as a brake upon said car.

4:. The combination with a railway car provided with a pair of wheelsmovable to ward and away from each other, of means to move said wheelslongitudinally of their axes, to act as a brake upon said car.

5. The combination with a railway car, of an axle, a wheel carriedthereby, and movable longitudinally with respect thereto, and means tomove said Wheel longitudinally of said axle to act as a brake for saidcar.

6. The combination with a railway car, of a flanged wheel carriedthereby, and means to move said flanged wheel longitudinally of its axisto act as a brake for said car.

7. The combination with a car, of an axis carried thereby, a wheelrotatably mounted upon said axle and movable longitudinally thereof, androtatable means carried by said car to move said wheel longitudinally ofsaid axle to act as a brake.

8. The combination with a car, of an axle carried thereby, a wheelrotatably mounted upon said axle and movable longitudinally thereof, asleeve surrounding said axle and movable longitudinally thereon, aconnecting rod secured to said sleeve and a crank shaft connected tosaid connecting rod.

9. In a railway car, the combination with an axle, of a wheel rotatablymounted upon each end thereof and movable longitudinally thereof, asleeve mounted upon said axle inside of each of said wheels, and movablelongitudinally of said axle, a crank shaft rotatably carried by saidcar, a crank arm for rotating said crank shaft, a wrist plate carried bysaid crank shaft, and a connecting rod between said wrist plate and eachof said sleeves to move said sleeves longitudinally upon said axle tospread said wheels.

10. The combination with a rail, of a railway car having a wheel mountedupon said rail, the periphery of said wheel projecting below the topsurface of said rail, and brake actuating means for moving said wheellater-- ally with respect to said car to force a side portion of saidwheel against a side portion of said rail to brake said car.

11. The combination with a rail, of a car movable longitudinally of saidrail, means carried by said car and engaging said rail and movablelaterally with respect to said rail, and means to force said firstmentioned means laterally with respect to said rail and against saidrail to brake said car.

12. The combination with a pair of parallel rails, of a car movablelongitudinally of said rails, means engaging each of said rails andcarried by said car, whereby said car is guided, each of said meansbeing movable laterally with respect to said rails, and means to forceeach of said guiding means laterally against its rail to brake said car.

13. The combination with a pair of parallel rails, of a car movablelongitudinally of said rails, means engaging each of said rails andcarried by said car, whereby said car is supported and guided, each ofsaid means being movable laterally with respect to said rails, and meansto force each of said supporting and guiding means laterally against itsrail to brake said car.

14. The combination with a rail, of a car movable longitudinally of saidrail, means carried by said car and engaging said rail and movabletransversely with respect to said rail, and means to force said firstmentioned means transversely with respect to said rail and against saidrail to brake said car.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 26th day of May, A.D., 1909.

GEORGE C. THOMPSON.

\Vitnesses ADDISON IRWIN GARDNER, ALEXANDER PARK.

